real life biology 101

Our first several weeks of school have gone pretty smoothly, especially considering I have two little boys constantly underfoot and not a single toy in the house with which to distract them. Maggie is so enthusiastic about the two subjects she can do alone that she is now on page 95 of the handwriting book and is on page 46 in phonics. Mary and Will finish their assignments in about 3 hours, leaving plenty of time in the afternoons for visiting friends, horse lessons, and constructing a homemade “fair” on the swing set.

Extra science lessons are built in naturally over the course of the day. While touching a blue salamander that now lives under the turned-over wheelbarrow is pretty neat, learning about yellow jacket nests is dangerous, especially for poor Charlie who has been stung 14 times so far this summer. The destruction of these nasty creatures has been my project, yesterday I set out at 6am armed with a shovel and cans of wasp spray to exact revenge on a swarm that had stung me near an old stone wall. Later I showed the kids part of the paper nest with wasp larvae emerging and described the fat queen.

Every day we have at least one sighting of the wild turkeys who slowly stroll through the fields eating bugs and seeds. Today they came so close to the house that I joked to Maggie, “That big tom is going to try out your bicycle. Maybe his friend wants to jump onto the swings.”

One evening last week Will and Mary raced in hollering, “Where’s the camera??” Unfortunately by the time they ran back across the fields, the porcupine that had been lumbering toward them on the mown path had disappeared.

Once we get back to Maryland in a few weeks the children will be sadly disappointed to learn biology from books, with only the occasional trip to the park as a supplement.